It may not be as steep as the deck on the sinking Titanic, but the basement floor in Miller Hall’s oldest wing is a careening mess. And it, too, is sinking.

A walk through the basement of the 1940s building reveals where the peat bog beneath most of Red Square has contracted in dry seasons and swelled in wet seasons.

It is enough to lower and raise the concrete floor a few inches depending on the time of year, leaving furniture tilted in the basement’s computer labs. Some walls have 2-inch-wide cracks from the seasonal changes in pressure.

Soon, however, the basement will be on far less shaky ground.

Renovations promise to make the floor completely level, stable and unsinkable, a fix that will cost about $1.2 million of Miller Hall’s ongoing $60.4 million makeover, said David Willet, project manager of the Miller Hall renovation.

Willet said although the slanted floor is not a serious safety hazard, it could eventually render the basement unusable, which is one reason Miller Hall was chosen for renovation rather than other buildings on campus.

“The floor moves and the building doesn’t because the building is sitting on bedrock, but that basement slab basically floats on top of a bog,” he said.

The basement is the current home to two Woodring College computer labs and two general computer labs, all of which will remain open until Summer Session ends in August.

Dawson Construction, the company contracted to oversee the renovation, will then demolish everything in the basement except for several large concrete cubes, known as pile caps.

The floor will be excavated down about 24 inches onto more solid ground.

Workers will then install upgraded structural reinforcement for the basement, according to blueprints.

New pile caps and piles will be installed and attached to what are known as grade beams. These beams, which are like roof beams, except they hold up the floor.

An 8-inch slab will then be poured on top of the new beams, binding the grade beams and the piles together.

The sinking basement was not a problem until the 1960s, Willet said, because the basement was a 3-foot crawlspace with a dirt floor. 

Before the major addition of another wing to Miller Hall—fittingly known as the 1960s building—brought some changes to the original 1940s building, as well.

“Somebody got the idea to dig out the crawlspace in the 1940s building and put down a concrete slab and create a basement,” Willet said. “They simply poured the concrete on the ground, and they were done.”

Ed Simpson, assistant director of Western’s Facilities Design and Construction Administration, said the building is still on schedule to open by January 2012.

He said there is a much higher chance Western will end up saving money on the project rather than going over budget.

“It really depends on the bidding environment at the time, and the bidding environment has been very good for Western,” Simpson said.

Funding for construction comes out of Western’s capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget.

When construction began in August 2009, Western’s capital budget for the year was about $79 million.

Other changes to Miller Hall will include a glass-walled pavilion in the courtyard with a roof garden. It will also include  improved energy efficiency, new elevators and security systems.

There will also be handicap accessibility on every floor, more than 1,000 classroom seats and storm water treatment between Miller Hall and the Sehome Hill Arboretum.

“At the end of the project, it will be worth all of the disruption and disturbance it has caused,” Willet said. “It will just look like a brand new building inside.”

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